The FBI has threatened the alleged CEO of scammers-cryptters threatened by a $ 4 million investment in his bank, blotted out in a disconcerting way • The Register

Endorsement could bite Evander Holyfield

Arise-hole … Jared Rice, Sr. AriseBank, CEO of AriseBank

The CEO of AriseBank, a Texas-based company that claims to be the "world's first decentralized banking platform," has been arrested by the FBI and charged with title fraud and wire transfer.

Last summer, Jared Rice, father, claimed that his newly created company would provide daily bank accounts to customers to store their cryptocurrency. According to Rice, the accounts would be protected by the Federal Government's Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the bank would have its own currency, AriseCoin, sold as part of an initial offer to raise funds.

He set up a flashy website and promoted it on social media, according to an indictment now unsealed. [PDF] filed this month in a Dallas court. He even got the support of a celebrity from world heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield three times, although the reason you trust the insight of someone who was getting hit in the head to make a living escapes us.

Evander Holyfield, Boxing Legend and Hall of Fame Member, Officially Underwrites @AriseBank @ BitShares Join the biggest fight in history. #arisebank $ BTS #BTS pic.twitter.com/L7wdp2GHV9

– Evander Holyfield (@holyfield) January 8, 2018

Rice, 30, first claimed to have raised $ 300 million from AriseBank's coin offer, then increased that figure to $ 600 million. He then promised that he could act from the first $ 1 billion crypto-dosh offer. However, despite all this advertising and hype, hundreds of bettors would have invested only $ 4.25 million in exchange for the bank's chips. The investigators allege that Rice simply took this money, transferred it to her personal bank account and used it to improve her lifestyle and girlfriend, rather than pouring it into her business.

The wheels began to disengage quite quickly. The Texas banking authorities noticed the promotion and noted that Rice did not have a banking license, it was said. They knew him from a previous confrontation, in which Rice admitted [PDF] theft and alteration of government records after falsifying a document of incorporation of the Secretary of State of Texas – charge for which he is still in prison. He was also owed money after losing a civil suit against him.

Crucially, he failed to disclose these convictions, which were related to a previous Internet business, at the launch of AriseBank, according to US prosecutors.

While the federal government was aware of the activities of AriseBank, an undercover FBI agent made a small investment (0.0666 Bitcoin) in his coin offer to collect evidence. At about the same time, Rice appeared to be beginning to retract her remarks, issuing a press release in January of this year "stating" that the bank's accounts were not protected by the FDIC but that the The company was in the process of acquiring an FDIC insured. bank.

"Transparency is a trait we are very proud of at AriseBank," Rice said at the time. "We hope this will help clarify the nature of what we are doing and the vision we have for the future of the banking sector as a whole."

In the midst of all this, the US SEC began taking steps to close AriseBank in February and hired Rice and its operations director, Stanley Ford, in a civil legal battle in March. On Wednesday of this week, the FBI stepped in and grabbed Rice.

"My office is committed to enforcing the law in the crypto-currency space," said US District Attorney Erin Nealy Cox. "The North Texas District will not tolerate this kind of blatant deception – online or offline."

Rice, arrested and charged with securities and wire fraud, faces up to 120 years in prison if she is convicted. ®

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